City planner built highway bridge around tiny home after owners refused to move
Topics: China, World News
Niamh Spence
Featured Image Credit: Weibo
Topics: China, World News
A tiny home in China's Guangzhou nearly stopped construction plans after the owners refused to sell or move.
Yet a city planner instead changed the plans to build the Haizhuyong Bridge around the small home, after the owner refused to sell it to the Chinese government for 10 years.
See the house here:
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The Chinese Government had originally planned to demolish the property in 2010 alongside others in order to build the highway the Haizhuyong Bridge sits on, and ten years later the bridge opened but not as they had quite pictured it would look.
The bridge, which opened in 2020, now wraps around the small home giving it epic views of the highway and rush hour traffic on both sides.
According to Guangdong TV station, the one-storey house contains a 40-square-meter (430-square-foot) flat and is situated in a pit in the middle of the four-lane traffic link.
MailOnline reported that the owner, known by her surname Liang, said she had not agreed to move because the government had failed to offer her a replacement property in an ideal location.
Shunning what people think of her, Liang has said that she's still happy with her property despite the views now changing to be more automotive than scenic.
She explained: "You think this environment is poor, but I feel it's quiet, liberating, pleasant and comfortable."
According to authorities, Liang was offered multiple properties including various flats as well as a cash compensation to try and persuade her to move but she still wasn't keen.
After it was clear she wouldn't be moving, authorities have explained that they drafted in engineers to study the health and safety issues and made sure it was safe for Liang to continue living there despite the highways either side.
The case is similar to the infamous house in the middle of the M62 motorway in the UK, which was once reported that it was due to the owner's stubbornness to move but actually it's thought to be down to a geographical fault.
Ken Wild's Stott Hall Farm is surrounded on both sides by motorway but according to Yorkshire Water, the land on which the house was built contains a 'geological anomaly' which made it 'impossibly steep' for six lanes to be built upon it.
Granddaughter of Wild, Kimberley Pollard, spoke to The Huddersfield Daily Examiner and explained why the farm was never sold.
She said: "The story is my granddad was a stubborn old Yorkshireman who refused to move - but he's actually from Lancashire.
"He was far too subdued for that - and he wouldn't have had a choice in the matter because the farm was rented from Yorkshire Water."